BMC formally hands over Mumbai mayor’s house to trust for Thackeray memorial

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has drawn much criticism in the past four years from his critics, and most recently from NCP’s Ajit Pawar, over plans for the Bal Thackeray memorial in the city being in a state of limbo despite the Sena being a part of the BJP governments at the Centre as well as the state. But, after most hurdles were recently removed, a major step towards the plans going ahead was taken on Tuesday when the 1928-built Mumbai mayor’s bungalow in Dadar was officially handed over by the BMC to the Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial Public Trust on Tuesday.

Thus the Shiv Sena founder, whose political journey began in 1966 at the Shivaji Park maidan exactly opposite the mayor’s bungalow and who held several meetings and pre- and post-rally friendly chai sessions at the bungalow with the likes of AB Vajpayee, LK Advani and Pramod Mahajan, is set to finally get a spot for his memorial in city over which he unofficially held sway for four decades.

On Monday evening, mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar belonging to Thackeray’s own party hosted a Diwali celebration at the ground-plus-one-storey structure. This will be the last Diwali of a city mayor at the seafacing site. For, although Tuesday’s handover to Sena leader and industries minister Subhash Desai – a member of the memorial trust – was ‘advance possession’ and the mayor will stay there for the time being, he is before long going to be relocated to a civic bungalow at the Veermata Jijabai Udyan and zoo campus in Byculla.

The handover was effected by a team of BMC officials from the estate and general administration department on Tuesday morning. “Physical possession would happen only once the mayor is shifted out of the premises,” a civic official said.

Civic officials said BMC has leased 11,500 sq mt of the bungalow plot for construction of the memorial at a nominal rate of Rs1 per annum for a period of 30 years. The bhoomi pujan for the memorial is likely to take place on January 23, the late Bal Thackeray’s birth anniversary.

Civic sources said the mayor has given his consent to shift to the bungalow at the Byculla zoo campus. Currently, additional municipal commissioner A L Jarhad lives in the Byculla bungalow. A civic bureaucrat said Jarhad would be moved out once the mayor informs them that he would be shifting there.

On Tuesday, the formalities carried out at the mayor’s bungalow included an inventory of everything being handed over. The plan for the memorial was first announced in November 2016, and the proposal for converting the mayor’s bungalow into a memorial got a nod from the BMC House of corporators on February 27 last year.

Not all hurdles have been cleared yet, however. An activist, Bhagvanji Raiyani, has filed a PIL in Bombay high court challenging the memorial, saying it violates rules and SC rulings prohibit conversion of state-owned bungalows into memorials. Raiyani told TOI he’d now request for an early hearing. Another plea has been filed by the Jan Mukti Morcha.

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